Estimated trends in fish stock biomass, by fishing areas (source: JRC-STECF)

<p>The indicator shows the model-based trend over time of fish stock biomass relative to 2003 in the EU marine waters of the North-East Atlantic and adjacent seas (FAO area 27) and Mediterranean and Black Sea (FAO area 37) and is presented as index 2003 = 100. Fish stock biomass is a function of biological characteristics such as abundance and weight and can indicate the status of a fish stock when measured against reference values. The indicator is computed based on single species quantitative stock assessments. The full time series is updated every year, sometimes including new stocks due to newly available quantitative assessments which can result in small differences from one release year to the next.</p>